A Lose Lose Proposition Using Obama Logic

The Keystone XL Pipeline has been viewed as a means to alleviate several problems: reducing America’s dependency upon Middle East Oil, providing a source for America’s refining of oil if America ever decides to face reality and challenge the environmentalist insistence against building domestic refineries, lowering the price of fuel at the pump (since increasing pump prices directly influences the price of all domestic products, everything moves by oil), providing employment for many Americans in the construction of the pipeline and at the port, and an assurance of a reliable source of crude (in case we decide to accept reality).

Why would a president who has the best interests of a country and its people foremost as his priorities spend years dithering over whether to give the economy a real stimulus? Many would say the president doesn’t like the idea of halting the flow of America’s wealth to the Middle East in the exchange of oil for dollars that only continues to weaken the American economy while providing unimaginable wealth to a few dictators in a perverse form of Wealth Redistribution.

President Obama:

“But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. (Applause.) Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods — all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science — and act before it’s too late. (Applause.)

Now, the good news is we can make meaningful progress on this issue while driving strong economic growth. I urge this Congress to get together, pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. (Applause.) I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.

Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. And we’ve begun to change that. Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year — let’s drive down costs even further. As long as countries like China keep going all in on clean energy, so must we.”

Maintaining this conspicuous drain on America’s wealth and denying the obvious benefits of the Keystone has been hard to for Leftists to justify, even for the bizarre logic of the Obama sycophant; yet Obama may have a solution that will mollify his Progressive constituencies and their anti-America bias.

The solution is a stroke of genius among those who seek control and a revival of the Global Warming Hoax: a carbon tax will placate the effete environmentalist, it will ease the deficit, and it will help Obama achieve one of his campaign promises, to make the price of energy skyrocket.

The astute student of American government would say Congress will never approve such a tax, but California Senator Boxer is way ahead of you Constitutional types, she has already outlined a plan to impose a Carbon Tax through the EPA.

“I’m telling you right now, EPA has the authority in the transportation sector, the electricity sector, and the industrial sector under the Clean Air Act” to do everything that legislation might otherwise do.

Boxer explains the implementation of the new tax in Orwellian terms, the basis for Obama Logic:

Mrs. Boxer helpfully detailed Democrats’ new strategy for getting a foothold. Now that cars are so much more fuel-efficient, she explained, the gas tax isn’t bringing in enough revenue to cover highway needs. How to fix this? Easy! Just replace the gas tax with a carbon tax.

The softening of resistance among the elite environmentalists has begun. Nature magazine a prestigious environmental rag:

“Regarding the Keystone pipeline, the administration should face down critics of the project, ensure environmental standards are met and then approve it.”

The science writers at Nature also managed a mental reflux of on the meme of Canadian Tar Sands, since they are now:

“not as dirty as many believe.”

Obama’s handlers have set the perfect snare for Canadians and Americans and they are both about to feel what it is like to have the steel cable tighten around their collective necks.

In a strange twist of Obama non-logic, Obama is insisting that Canada must impose a Carbon Tax on itself for exporting the deadly Carbon that seems to be a non-issue in the debunked theory of Global Warming.

The carbon taxes will help to neutralize any negligible gains the in the economy and it will tend to reassure the environmentalists and the Progressive sycophant looking for direction and talking points, and according to Nature it will seduce the Conservatives into complacency.

“By approving Keystone, Obama can bolster his credibility within industry and among conservatives.” While conservatives are lulled, Nature proposed new regulations, crackdown on the coal industry, and a carbon tax.

The Washington Post has joined in the melee. In January the Post pressed the president:

“ignore the activists who have bizarrely chosen to make Keystone XL a line-in-the-sand issue.”

Last week in a Climate Change editorial, the Post endorsed a carbon tax:

“slowly rising, significant price on carbon emissions” would encourage people to burn less fossil fuel. As an added fiscal bonus, since Washington needs new revenues to meet its fiscal crisis, “a carbon tax would be an ideal source” of revenue.

Without doubt, Obama sees himself as the winner in this strange dance of prosperity versus ideological nonsense. He can placate the environmentalist with carbon taxes and an ever-tightening ligature around the neck of the American and Canadian economies, and he can reassure the Conservatives that he does actually want to decrease America’s dependence on Middle East oil.

There are a few problems:

Keeping peace with the activist left will not be easy. A two-bit chorus of B-grade Hollywood stars — Alec Baldwin, Ed Norton, Yoko Ono — are backing the Sierra Club’s call for a march on Washington next weekend, “the largest climate rally in U.S. history.” Under the “Forward on Climate” banner, the target is clear in the Sierra Club’s marching call: “The first step to putting our country on the path to addressing the climate crisis is for President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.”

The Sierra Club wants the country to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, excluding their personal jets and limousines of course. Obama would have a difficult time trying to deliver on this idea; especially since he would fall out of favor with his friends in the Middle East and America would soon descend into a Third World cess pool. Although the carbon tax is a compromise and Canada may soon be paying its fair share.

Ottawa and Alberta are desperate to get the Keystone XL Pipeline approved; otherwise, they must contend with the uncertain and unreliable markets of Asia with a pipe line through British Columbia. Although, the vast resources of the United States are also a factor; if the deal is prolonged indefinitely, America will tap more domestic resources and the need to build a pipe line will be decreased. Thus they are encouraged to accept the carbon tax on oil entering the United States. Canadians will be paying more for oil for the privilege of selling oil to the United States. A situation similar to the Obama Logic of borrowing from China to give the money to Greece.

Ottawa and Alberta seem ready for anything to get Keystone approved. The level of appeasement if not desperation in the language of Canadian politicians rises by the day. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver — heading to Washington to plead for Keystone’s approval — says Canada is moving in “lockstep” with Washington on environmental issues. Trade Minister John Baird said Ottawa is “like-minded” on environmental objectives. Mr. Obama and Mr. Harper, he said, have both set a 17% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Alberta’s new representative in Washington, David Manning, said last week Premier Alison Redford is ready to deal with Washington over Keystone. “We have much more in our toolbox” to offer Washington in return for a green light on Keystone, he said, without elaborating.

Many in the oil industry in Canada and the United States support a carbon tax paid by consumers, especially if it means getting political support for energy projects. Better to tax consumers than industry. The Canada West Foundation, a big Keystone booster, has often supported a carbon tax in Canada. “We need a carbon price: transparent, unmistakable and extending across the economy,” wrote a foundation official recently.

The carbon tax will cause severe damage to an ailing economy, but more importantly, it will penalize the American consumer. As the consumer pays more for a gallon of gas, he has less money to spend for other goods and services in the economy, and the economy suffers, but the elite environmentalist who isn’t worried about feeding a family, the oil industry executive and crony capitalists, and the mindless drones who hang on every word of the messiah in Washington who is fixing everything will rejoice over the sheer joy of carbon taxes; until, the reality of a failed economy settles around them.

In the bleak years to come, as America wallows in the despair of self-inflicted poverty ruled by wealthy elitists, we must remember the architect who was responsible for destroying America’s great wealth to create a quasi-Socialist Welfare State.

About Skook

A professional horseman for over 40 years, Skook continues to work with horses. He is in an ongoing educational program, learning life's lessons from one of the world's greatest instructors, the horse. Skook has a personal website skooksjournal.com featuring his personal writings and historical novel type stories.

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26 Responses to “A Lose Lose Proposition Using Obama Logic”

john

Skook our northern neighbors want the pipeline built so that they will have access to a port so that they can ship this oil out to Asia and South America, more lucrative markets. They will not agree to have that Canadian oil be mandated to be sold in the.US or Canada. The pipeline might well RAISE prices in the midwest where there is a current OVERPRODUCTION of oil, where Canadian oil must be sold at a discount. Oil independence will be more assured if the pipeline is not built to the port and the USA is the only viable customer. If the Canadians want to harvest that dirty oil and refine it the USA will be the obvious winner, as long as we don’t make it easy for them to export to more lucrative markets.

Yes, John, they are having a lot of resistance to the idea of a pipeline across BC. It is something about saving the pristine landscape for their grandchildren; however, there are oil rigs and pipelines running everywhere in BC, especially in the North. I think the phrase “dirty oil” is dramatization of Leftist fear mongering. Documentation will accomplish more with lucid thinkers, rather than resorting to epithets that are technically meaningless.

The pipeline will increase domestic prices because of Obama and the carbon taxes, not because of a glut of oil production. However, when Obama and crew get on the scent of new taxes and higher fuel prices, we’ve probably had the biscuit (as in the last supper), whether the pipeline is built or not.

johngalt

when Obama and crew get on the scent of new taxes and higher fuel prices,

I don’t think it’s a question of “when”, Skook. He, and they, already have. That they haven’t shoved a thing like carbon credits down our throats yet, like they did Obamacare, is a miracle in itself. In my view, the American business community is still holding it’s breath, waiting for that shoe to drop, before they decide what to do with all of that cash they have hoarded.

If Obama got it into his head that a green light on Keystone could result in “record” revenue for his central government, then look out. At that point, “millions” of union pipefitters and steelworkers would be in the gravy, building the pipeline 24/7.

johngalt

And, whole new populations of “nanny-state” politicians and voters will be bred wherever the pipeline goes through, exchanging votes for federal and local dollars. Eisenhower had his highway system. Obama will have his own.

Can you imagine in ten years calling the network of pipelines running throughout the US the “Obama pipeline system”?

Skookum

JG, continued: It is about money, power, and control. If he can gain control of Canadian energy, he will be happy beyond measure. Alberta oil is in a trap; even though they support the rest of Canada, the rest of Socialistic Canada hates them and wants to punish them. Like us they need to refine the oil and sell the finished products, but the children, what about the children resonates in Canada like it does here. Those same children better get used to living like Mexico, a resource rich country living in poverty, except for the elite who enjoy their peasants and the cheap labor they provide. It is better than slavery. In a slave situation, the owners provide clothing and food; Socialism just gets another peasant when one starves.

johngalt

Yes, I agree. It IS better than slavery for them. They now have a willing population, addicted to the scraps thrown their way, that continue to vote in elitist prigs who wallow in the richness of their positions, at the same time as they revel in the misery brought upon the rest of us.

Common sense would have dictated that the bums would have been thrown out on their asses by now, but common sense ain’t so common anymore, is it?

Nan G

“Obama Logic.”
I like that.
There is a thing called Obama logic.

Like, for example when he wanted to push for another case of having MORE GOVERNMENT be the solution Obama actually said, “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”

ilovebeeswarzone

if I was the keystone owners , I WOULD WAIT THAT THIS GOVERNMENT GET KICKED OUT BEFORE DEALING WITH THEM, THEY HAVE NOT DISPLAY THEY CAN HONESTLY MAKE DEALSTHAT ONE CAN TRUST, LIKE THE MANY PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT WOULD BE TRUST,
THE KEYSTONE LIKE AMERICANS AND WOULD PREFER TO DEAL WITH THE MANY STATES INSTEAD,
THE CANADIANS ARE NOT OUT OF RESOURCES, THEY HAVE SEA TO SEA TO GET THE OIL SOMEWHERE
ELSE, NOW THEY WILL COME EAST WITH OIL FOR THE POPULATION OF THE EAST,
MEANING THE CANADIANS ARE NOT STUCK IF OBAMA WANT TO PLAY GAMES OF SHIT,

ilovebeeswarzone

Nameless Cynic
CANADA HAS ENOUGH LAND, DON’T NEED THIS LAND, AND WON’T STEAL IT,
BUT BEWARE OF THOSE BUILDING MOSQUE TAKING A LOT OF LAND FOR THOSE BIG MONSTER,
THEY COME FROM WHERE YOU BUY YOUR OIL ALSO,
AND AS CANADA IS A FRIEND OF AMERICA, THE OTHER ARE THE GREEDY HATERS OF AMERICA,
ANXIOUS TO BRING SHARIA AND STONE YOU TO DEATH, WHEN THEY GET IT HERE.

Oklahoma Thinker

All you have to do it dig a bit deeper into this. The oil has been found, and it will be moved to whatever market will pay the price. Warren Buffet owns Burlington Northern Railroad. If the pipeline is stopped then the oil will move by rail. Guess whose railroad? Same thing is in the infancy stages here in Oklahoma. Years ago the railroads started abandoning rail lines, specifically a line from Oklahoma City to Tulsa. The state of Oklahoma bought the line and has been leasing it to a small regional railroad, keeping lots of small businesses and grain farmers in business. Now, lo and behold there is a tremendous oil boom in western and northern Oklahoma. Guess who wants to buy the rail line. Yep. Burlington Northern.
Guess who’s rates are double what the small railroad charges? Follow the money. It’s ALL about the $$.

ilovebeeswarzone

Skookum

A TransCanada spokesman, Shawn Howard, says the company does not have to wait for a license from the State Department to begin securing land. He said the company has tried to obtain voluntary agreements, but when that fails the company has the right to force lease agreements upon landowners in all six states the pipeline would pass through. All of TransCanada’s permit applications, he said, have been made through its subsidiary in Omaha, Keystone Pipeline.

“We have been given the legal advice that we can do this in parallel to the process going on in Washington,” Mr. Howard said. “If we didn’t think we had the authority or ability to do this, we wouldn’t be doing it.”

A senior State Department official, who asked not to be identified because the permit process is continuing, said TransCanada had not sought federal approval to invoke eminent domain. He said the department had no authority on the issue and that it was up to state law and the courts to determine appropriate use of eminent domain laws.

Trans Canada is trying to close the deals before or if the deal goes through. They’re techniques are not ethical, but the land owners still have the protection of the state courts.

I have two passports: U.S. and Canadian. Napolitano has identified American vets as potential terrorist threats. Obama considers me and millions of others to be a greater threat to the country than those who are on a Jihad to destroy this country. Obama considers me to be an enemy of this country and I consider him to be an enemy of this country, but unlike Obama, if they had a parade in my honor, I wouldn’t request that the Marine honor guard pull the bolts from their M14 rifles and surrender them before the parade.

Do I consider myself a patriot? No, I am no longer a patriot of the new Socialist State of America.

You should read the article once again. It was written from the view of a dispassionate observer, who brings forth this administration’s plan’s to increase the government’s share of oil revenue by incorporating carbon taxes that will directly and indirectly cause energy prices to increase almost exponentially.

Obama and dimwits like Pelosi are aware that federal gas taxes in the form of federal revenues are decreasing, a direct of Americans buying smaller lighter cars. It’s true the increased prices at the pump has forced Americans to drive four wheel motorcycles with a plastic and tin foil exterior covering, but Americans no longer have the freedom of movement or the safety of a more secure vehicle. In Obama logic, this is progress. Obama logic sees this as the culmination of increased mpg mandates. Yahoo! Who would have thought it was possible to put a motorcycle engine in a modified tin can and get better mileage than the safer cars of the past? Just because the Europeans have been doing it for decades is no reason we can’t accomplish this mandated technology in America, but remember to thank the man who considers American vets as the greatest potential terrorist threats and who promised us skyrocketing energy prices.

Because of the pipeline of dubious rewards, Canadians and Americans will be paying higher oil prices. We will be paying for a resource that should be used to benefit the people of North America, but instead will be used as a measure to inflict control and energy taxes on Americans and Canadians.

I think a pipeline to several new refineries within the heart of North America would reduce the cost of energy, end our reliance on foreign oil, bring back the wealth of days gone by, and stop the drain of America’s wealth to the Middle East.

Obama logic recognizes problems with such a plan, the environmental donors would piss their trousers, the beloved dictators of the ME would have coronaries, and it is harder to make serfs from an affluent middle class. On this issue, I agree with Obama, but while he would never consider these possibilities, I embrace them. So tell me, who is the patriot?

Skookum

I am working on the road, so responses will be intermittent and often in the middle of the night. I have taken a middle of the road stance to give warning before the sharp blade of the guillotine falls. This is no longer a free country. Our government and its crony capitalists are gangsters running the legalized rackets. I am no patriot of the Socialist States or of Obama Logic.

ilovebeeswarzone

SKOOKUM
be safe on the road
yes, on your comment, beside ,
the CANADIANS are building their ship now, so they will use their PORT,
that is a change of the agenda,
I think they can easier bring the oil south that way, without
having to be crucify by the AMERICAN FEDS,
but answer to the STATES DEMAND FROM THE SOUTH.

Oklahoma Thinker

@ilovebeeswarzone: Where does my oil come from? Are you asking where my gasoline comes from? There are still refineries here. Where does my oil come from? From under my very feet, with much more to be extracted with new technology. Hydraulic fracturing or “fracing” isn’t new, it’s been around for most of my 60 years. Is it safe? YES. What is new is horizontal drilling technology that allow a bore hole to be at first vertical then horizontal in the “pay” zones. I can tell you much more practical knowledge if you wish. I’m a farmer, not an oil man.

ilovebeeswarzone

Oklahoma Thinker
THANK YOU FOR THE INFO,
I DIDN’T KNOW OKLAHOMA HAD FOUND OIL
AND ABOUT FRACING , I heard that also CANADA THE OIL LEADER ARE USING IT AS A NEW WAY
OR ANOTHER WAY TO GET IT UP,
THAT IS THE ONLY FIRST TIME I HEARD IT BESIDE YOU ARE THE SECOND PERSON TO TALK ABOUT IT,
as a farmer ,do you feel that it is not a danger to your water,
because in CANADA THIS ARGUMENT IS COMMING OUT OF ENVIROMENTALISTS WHO GATHER TO
CLAIM IT WILL KILL THE DRINKING WATER, IT IS DENYED BY THE OIL LEADERS,
AND IT CREATE A DELAY AND PROBLEMS TO ACTIVATE THE NEW ROUTE FROM WEST TO EAST,
SO I presume that is not a problem for your STATE AS IT WAS AND STILL IS WITH YOUR OWN US
GROUP OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS WHO ARE QUITE MORE NUMEROUS THAN KNOWLEDGEBLE OF OIL
ENOUGH TO PREVENT THE KEYSTONE PROJECT COMING FROM CANADA TOWARD THE NORTH EAST OF YOU. PREVENTING IT COME FROM OBAMA.
BEST TO YOU.

Oklahoma Thinker

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I don’t pretend to know what I don’t know, as many do. I only know what I see and can speak with confidence in those things. Oil and gas exploration has been going on in Oklahoma since before statehood (1907). Most water wells are less than 200 feet deep. When an oil well is started the first thing that is done is a large hole is drilled far below the water table and a solid pipe is sunk and cemented in place. All drilling equipment, drill pipe, drilling fluids and water circulated downhole to remove the debris from drilling is done inside this surface pipe barrier. Any operation such as logging, fracturing, or production is inside this outer shell of protection. Nothing can get out of this containment into the water table. NOTHING. There are instances of oil spills on the surface but regulations about how oil tanks and separation equipment must be inside earth berms and other containment makes sure it is easily cleaned up and resolved without any danger to the aquifer or crops. I have lived my whole life around oil, livestock, crops and have never seen a well contaminated by oil and gas exploration. Much the opposite, the income from oil and gas leasing, compensation for oil well sites, and income from production royalties have been a blessing for everyone in the community. And I’m talking about at least one well per square mile, with rare instances of one well every 10 acres. Farmers and oil men are stewards of the land, it is our livelihood and there is nothing we would do to endanger that stewardship. The government can be a partner in that endeavor or it can be an enemy. Environmentalists are the enemy of capitalism. Useful idiots.

ilovebeeswarzone

Oklahoma Thinker,
I have much respect for the farmers, my friends here close are farmer, a family farm,
using the new and the old way to farm,
I LOVE THE WISDOM COMING FROM THEM,
AND SEE IT FROM YOU ALSO,
hope you become a regular here because of what you bring to here
is a great interesting opinion,
bye

Skookum

@Oklahoma Thinker: Thank you for the concise overview of drilling technology. Part of my family is in the directional drilling industry of Western Canada (Big Time). I have been given a book to read on the technology, (I know the basics and the names of the main pieces of equipment and what they do) and I listen to the tech conversations, but it is often beyond my limited abilities to comprehend.

The environmentalists of Canada torment the oil industry in Canada as well. They use the same slogans and strategies that are being used in America. Alberta is largely responsible for supporting a large percentage of the welfare state of Canada, but in typical Obama fashion, they want to cut the throat of the goose that lays the golden eggs. The possibility of becoming a Third World cess pool doesn’t enter into their consciousness.

Alberta has a glut of oil and limited marketing opportunity because of being land locked like Oklahoma. The Socialists of Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa are raising hell over a pipeline they will never see across the forests of BC. Like Oklahoma, the oil industry provides a healthy economy for rural people and is probably part of the resistance by the Libs.

Oklahoma Thinker

@Skookum: I’ve always gone by the motto: The more you know, the more you know.
I thank God every day that I live where I do, in the middle of America where values and integrity still mean a lot. There are places in Canada I’ve found people with the same values, so relax!
I enjoy reading many sites and dearly enjoy the comments sections as well, one can separate the wheat from the chaff easily. The greatest sources of information about any subject can be found in the people that inhabit that subject material. My wife’s cousin in California has no idea about how food production is accomplished but she’s damn sure our food isn’t safe to eat. Cough, Cough, Bullshit. My whole goal is to get rich and if it means killing people with tainted or unsafe food, too bad???? CCB, again. Their lack of integrity and ethics can’t be allowed to stand.

Skookum

@Oklahoma Thinker: As strange as it seems, Oklahoma is one of the few states I haven’t worked in; although, I have worked for many of the people outside of the state. They are like you, they love their home.

I’ve only driven through Oklahoma once that I can remember and that was on a motorcycle when I was a teenager. I stopped in an area where the soil was like red dust and ankle deep. I wondered how you would farm such land. Obviously, much of Oklahoma is productive, but that is the kind of memory you can carry with you for 50 years.

ilovebeeswarzone

we are lucky there are no more TERROR BIRDS around
what I’m watching on TV, they where very dangerous birds 20 inches skull,
not counting the beak, they where bigger than OSTRICH,
KOLENKEN WAS ANOTHER ONE,
I wonder how humans survived and multiplie to today’s world population ,
with those monsters at the beginning of HUMANITY,
A HUMANITY WHICH ONLY EVOLVED IN SOME PLACES,
IT was indeed, a lose lose proposition,